THE DAMNED is a bleak, isolated thriller that takes full advantage of location, folklore, and fear of the unseen. I am not sure horror is the word I would use for this one, but fans of gothic styled ghost stories should enjoy its eeriness.
Synopsis: a tense psychological horror film that follows 19th-century widow, Eva. Tasked with making an impossible choice when a ship sinks off the coast of her isolated fishing outpost during the middle of an especially cruel winter.
Now in US theaters | UK & Irish Cinemas January 10th 2025 – Rated R for bloody violent content, suicide and some language
We meet Eva (Odessa Young) and the men stationed at her outpost in the midst of winter. Even with just enough food to eke through the winter they are confident of survival. Men and women of this caliber have faced far worse. Eva’s husband led the fishing boat before his death a season before. Now it is just her and Helga (Siobhan Finneran) who make sure that everything runs smoothly. The both have the respect of the men and everyone gets along. Even isolation and the cruel winter doesn’t seem to raise any tempers. It is the bond and family feel that helps the viewer engage with them through the rest of the film.
The winter and life as a whole is dangerous and peril can come quickly with the wrong decisions. When the spot a stranded ship off their coast it is in that moment that making the right choice means everything. Both options – to save or ignore – carry heavy weight. They barely have food of their own plus rowing out to sea could cause every man to die. But to do nothing? What is the cost there?
The men are in charge of the boat but Eva runs the show. It is on here to decide what to do and to shoulder any consequences that follow. Odessa Young is fantastic in this role. You have no problem believing that this is her way of life. The lives of her men and now possibly others is at her doorstep. Young gives us an Eva that sounds confident even when doubting. She does not shy away from the task and we see that determination and vulnerability coupled in how Odessa delivers her lines.
Things unfold through out the movie that keeps characters and viewers guessing as to the cause. Superstition is at the heart of any seaman, and Helga believes that something sinister is afoot. Even as Eva and the men try and find a rational answer it is clear that there might be more than just frozen tundra and thick fog out there.
Every nation has its boogeyman, and films have benefitted from them. For director Thordur Palsson (The Valhalla Murders), himself a native Icelander, it was this folklore and mythology that led him to develop the idea that would later become The Damned. Growing up in Iceland, family members would often share gruesome tales of ghosts, demons and evil spirits.
As he recalls: ‘Every Icelander has heard all kinds of different variations of the truth – all elements of our history that have been passed down. One of these stories was about a ship that sank off the shores of Iceland, with all survivors being killed by the natives. Having known of this, I started to write a story relating to it and kept fleshing it out, adding darker elements.’
Along with Young and Finneran the cast includes Rory McCann (Game of Thrones), Turlough Convery (Belfast), Lewis Gribben (Somewhere Boy), Francis Magee (The Tourist) and Mícheál Óg Lane (Calvary). Like Young does with Eva, these men create characters who could have been plucked from the seas yesterday. Every thing about them, the setting, and the script feels organic.
THE DAMNED is more creepy that horrifying and better for it. THere are intense, nail biting moments for sure. But as Stephen King has shown us many times, it is what you don’t see that is most terrifying. That is the feeling I got with this one.
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